The garage building industry puts a great deal of time and effort in designing its path of egress and safety standards. With the potential for substandard light levels and poor visibility within the parking garage the industry tries to do that which is within reason to maintain a safe environment within the parking garage. To help provide a safer environment within the parking garage, many garages include signage or directionals (such as arrows, ideograms, or other symbols) that provide information to people within automobiles. This information can include the direction of allowable traffic flow along a certain level or lane within the garage, whether turns are required or allowed, the location of certain landmarks (such as a store, office building, or historical area adjacent the parking garage) the location of additional parking, and the direction to the exit of the garage. In addition, signage or directionals can be provided for pedestrians within the parking garage. This signage can include, but is not limited to, arrows directing the pedestrian towards a path of egress, an elevator, a stairway, an emergency exit, an emergency call-box, or the like.
Many conventional parking garages include both luminaires for illuminating the interior of the parking garage and the signage or advertising for directing drivers or pedestrians within the parking garage towards the exit or other paths of egress. The signage can include a self contained source of illumination or it can be standard signage that is not illuminated.
However, there is a problem with signage that is not illuminated, in that it can be difficult to see and discern within a poorly lit parking garage. Even if the parking garage is well lit, the majority of the light being put off by the luminaires within the parking garage is directed downward. Further, most of the signage is coupled to or suspended from the ceiling at a level at or above the level of the garage luminaire. Thus, little, if any, of the light generated by the luminaire illuminates the signage.
While the signage that includes its own source of illumination overcomes the problem of effectively illuminating the sign it typically requires that additional electrical work be done within the parking garage to run power sources to each of these illuminated signs. This additional electrical work can significantly increase costs in constructing the parking garage. Further, when additional signage is needed after the garage is completed, additional cost and time is necessary to install illuminated signage instead of the standard non-illuminated signage.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a garage luminaire that incorporates and illuminates signage or directionals within the housing of the garage luminaire.